Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1887-08-06

o" Aou6 uaSe you Oeen Qere! ne asked
Of his retainer.
"About four days, baas."
did you take my letter to ON Croftsl"
yah, baas. Igave it to the missile"
"What did she doN
"She read it and then stood like this, hold
ing on to the veranda pole;;' and he opened
his mouth and one eye. and twisted up his
hideous countenance into q CHASTITY imitation
Of Bessie's sorrow stricken face, catching hold
Of one of the posts that supported the hut to
assist in the performance.
$50 she believed It'll"
Surely"
DWELL, we are going there tomorrow
"So, baas! I knew that before you told
me-"
1--WE are going there, and we are going to
take the place; and We are going to try Uncle
Silas by court martial for flying an English
flag, and if he is found guilty We are going to
shoot him, Hendrix"
$50, baas," said the Kaffir, rubbing his
hands in glee; "but will he be found guilty?"
II don't know" murmured the white man,
stroking his golden beard; "that will depend
upon what missile has to say; and upon the
verdict of the court" he added, by way Of an
afterthought.
"On the verdict of the court, ha! hap
chuclsled his wicked satellite. "On the YER
dict of the court, yes! yes! and the baas
will be president, ha! ha! One needs no
witchcraft to guess the verdict. And if the
court finds Uncle Silas guilty, who win do
the shooting, baass"
II have not thought of that: the time has
not come to think of it. 1t does not matter;
anybody can carry out the sentence of the
law"
"Baas," said the Kaflir, II have done much
for You and had little pay. have done ugly
things. l have read omens and made medi-
clnes, and 'smelt out your enemies. Will
You grant me a favor: Will you let me shoot
ON Croft if the court finds him guilty! 1t is
not much to ask, baas. l am a clever wiz
card, and deserve my pay"
"Why do you van to shoot him!"
because he logged me once, years ago,
for being a witch doctor, and the other day
he hunted me off the place. Besides, it is so
nice to shoot a white man. l should like it
BETTER" lie went on, with a smack of the lips,
IF it were missile, who set the dog on me. l
would"-
In q moment Frank Muller had the aston
ished rufilan by the throat and was kicking
and shaking him rs though he were a toy.
His brutal talk of Bessie had appealed to such
manliness as he had inhim, and, whatever his
W wlckedness may have been, he was too
madly i'll love with the woman to let her name
be taken in vain by a man whom, though he
held bis magic" in superstitious reverence,
he yet ranked lower than a dog. With his
nerves strung to the highest possible state of
tension, and half drunk as he was, Frank
Muller was no more a person to be played
with or irritated than a mad bull.
"You black beast!.' he yelled, sit YOU ever
00Tp m manfiHN haN. u o~otn lilo chat 7
will kill you, for all your wltchcraft," and he
hurled him with such forco up against tho
wall of the hut that the whole place shook.
The man fell, lay for a moment groaning and
then crept from the hut on his hands and
knees.
Muller sat scowling from under his bent
brows and watched him go. When he was
gone he rose and fastened the door behind
nm, and then suddenly burst into tears; the
result, no doubt, of the mingled effects of the
drink, mental and physical exhaustion and
the never resting passion zone can scarcely
call it love- that ate away at his heart like the
worm that dieth not.
"Oh, Bessie, Bessie" he groaned, 81 have
done it all for you. Surely you cannot he
angry when I nave killed them oil for YOU.
Oh, my darling, my darling! If you only
knew how l love you! Oh, my darling! my
darling" and in an agony of passion he flung
himself down OH the rough pallet in the
corner of the hut and sobbed himself to sleep.
Somehow Frank Muller's evil doing did not
make him any the happier, the fact of the
matter being that to enjoy wickedness q man
must be not only without conscience, but also
without passion. Now Frank Muller was
tormented with a very effective substitute for
the first, superstition, and his life was liter
ally overshadowed by the last, for the beauty
OF a girl possessed the power to dominate his
widest moods and inflict upon him tormcnts
that she herself was incapable Of even imagin-
ing.
At the first light of dawn Hendrix crept
humbly into the hut and woke his master,
and within half an hour they were across tho
Naal and on the road to Wakkerstroom
AS the light increased SO did Muller's spirits
rise, till at last, when the red sun came up in
glory and swept away the shadows, he felt
as though all the load Of guilt and fear that
lay at his heart had departed with them. He
could see now that the two Beers being killed
by a flash of lightning was a mere accident
q happy accident, indeed; for had it not been
for that he himself would lave had to kill
them, If lie could not by any other means
have got the warrant from them. AS it was
he had forgotten the warrant; but it did not
matter much, he reflected. Nobody would
he likely to find the bodies of the two men
and horses under the lonely bank there. Ger
tainly they would not be found until the
aasvogels had picked them clean. They
would be at work upon them by now. And
If they were found it was probable that the
paper would have rotted or blown away, or,
at the worst, be so discolored as to be unread
able. For the rest, there was nothing to con-
meet him with the murder, now that the two
accessories were dead. Hendrix would prove
an alibi for him. He was a useful man.
Hendrix. Besides, who would believe that it
was a murder? Two men were escorting an
ksnglishman to the river; somehow they be-
came involved in a quarrel; the Englishman
shot them, and they shot the Englishman and
his companion. Then the horses plunged
into the Eaal and upset the cart, and there
was al end of it. He could see now how well
things had gone for him. He was practically
placed beyond suspicion.
And then he fell to thinking of the fruits Of
his honest labors, and his cheek grew warm
with the mounting blood, and his eyes flashed
with the fire of youth. In two ~days-forty-
eight hours-at the outside, Bessie would be
i'll his arms. He could not miscarry now; he
was i'll absolute command there. Besides,
Hendrix had read it in his omens long ago.
Mooifontein should be stormed OH the NOR
row if that were necessary, and ON Silas
Croft and Bessie should he taken prisoners:
and then lie knew how to put on the screw.
That talk about shooting on the previous
night had been no idle threat. She should
yield herself to him or the old man should die,
and then he would take her. There could be
no legal consequences from that now that the
British government was surrendering. It
pro111I ba q raritorio,,S ocf 70 eho.< ..L,